The other day I was watching a play with one of my best friends, and one of the characters  was giving a ‘feminist empowerment’ speech. Afterwards, my friend commented on this saying ‘I wanted to shout out at that bit: you’re not a feminist! You’re wearing a pretty dress!’

That came out of the mouth of someone I genuinely like, and it actually upset me a bit that people who are otherwise rational and intelligent can think of feminism as something as such a black and white issue, and define feminist in such rigid terms.

Another thing that troubled me was a poster for a feminist discussion on the back of a loo door at college. Throughout the year there was a constantly evolving ‘debate’ of graffiti all over this poster, with different people offering narrow-minded and partially formed opinions and comments on what feminism was. Apart from it being tragic and stupid to attempt to tackle gender injustice with a felt tip on a loo door, many self-rghteous people tried to divide the entire world into misogynists and feminists, or simply offer such insight as ‘chill the fuck out who gives a shit’. What I’m trying to say is that there are varying degrees of opinion amongst everyone, it is not something that is easily defined, in a sentence - more of an ongoing discussion about whether and how the roles of women should be elevated in various aspects of society.

It is not a requirement for people who hold feminist beliefs to be man-haters, or to be unconcerned about their appearance, or to be a lesbian. Feminism is a spectrum. None of these aforementioned definitions are applicable to me but I would categorise myself as a feminist; I am interested in and concerned with how the woman is represented, from magazines to the workplace. I am pro-choice, and I am angered by women who belittle themselves by pretending to be less intelligent than they are. Yet I don’t have fully formed opinions on the matter, it is something that is evolving and will continue to evolve as I read and experience more. 

However, there is not much that angers me more than someone, especially a woman, claiming they are most definitely not a feminist in any way, because that is so contradictory to the way in which most people behave. Anyone who respects or admires any other woman holds feminist beliefs in some shape or form; I think that even admiring the way a woman looks can be empowering to a women, as it is elevating her to a higher level. I think there are few people in liberal and civilised countries who would deny a woman freedom of thought and some form of independence at the very least, and I know that many people whom I have heard say something in denial of feminist beliefs hold aspirations for good jobs, education and some form of power in their future lives.

I’ve deleted all of the posts that I don’t find interesting at all, and I’m going to unfollow everyone that I don’t find interesting. I want to start using this again to sort of document the things I like in terms of cultural stuff… Basically so I can use this as a reference and reminder more than anything else.